After
years of development, the military of Taiwan has deployed the ultra-secret
Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) land-attack cruise missile (LACM) and appears
to be disguising the road-mobile launchers as a fleet of medium-sized
express delivery vehicles, Internet reports have said.

The HF-2E LACM, developed by the Chung-Shan Institute
of Science and Technology (CSIST), entered mass production under the
Ma Ying-jeou administration and is now deployed in northern parts of
the country. Three squadrons, under Missile Command’s 601 Group,
are deployed in Taishan and Sansia in New Taipei City, and Yangmei in
Taoyuan County, Defense News reported.

With a range of about 650km, the subsonic HF-2E is at the heart of the
national counterforce strategy and would be used to launch retaliatory
strikes against military targets along China’s southeastern coast.
Reports last year said the deployment was part of a NT$30 billion (US$1.02
billion) program codenamed Chichun, or “Lance Hawk.”

The Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) is a surface-to-surface cruise missile system
developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST)
in Taiwan and based upon the earlier HF-2 anti-ship missile.

HF-2E missile will primarily be deployed operationally in ground-mobile
launchers. The launcher vehicle will carry the HF-2E missiles in protective
aluminum box launchers, with wings and control fins retracted, conceptually
similar to the trailer-mounted mobile launchers for Tien Kung Sky Bow
series surface-to-air missiles and HF-2 coastal defense missiles. The
launchers will normally be based in hardened shelters at military installations,
with deployment to remote, pre-surveyed launch sites during alert situations.